County Supervisors Increase Home Health-Care Worker Wages To $11 An Hour
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to raise the wages of more than 140,000 home health-care workers.
The board voted 4-1 to approve a motion by Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas and Hilda Solis instructing county administrators to allocate $11.9 million in the 2015-16 Department of Public Social Services budget to raise wages of home health-care workers from their existing $9.65-an-hour salaries to $11, effective Jan. 1, 2016.
Salaries of the In-Home Supportive Service workers will increase to $11.18 on Feb. 1, 2017.
Paid through a state program, the home care workers would not benefit from an increase in the city or county's minimum wage.
Home care workers have been pushing the county to boost their salaries to $15 an hour. Earlier this month, dozens of the workers -- represented by the Service Employees International Union-United Long-Term Care Workers -- rallied at a Board of Supervisors meeting to state their case. Dozens more showed up Tuesday.
Workers told the board about the work they do caring for the elderly and disabled, some of whom are members of their own families, and how hard it is to make ends meet on $9.65 an hour.
"Today is a victorious day for L.A. County IHSS providers as we celebrate the greatest wage increase we've ever won," Laphonza Butler, president of SEIU-ULTCW, said. "Today's vote is a leap forward in our path to $15 and a step toward lifting all L.A. County workers out of poverty."
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